Every meeting with Fr Anthony was a classroom called life for the NESFAS team and their guests.His circles of wellbeing at the ITM 2015 Shillong have become an iconic image of the event where a cluster of Garo musicians, around his welcoming smile and enthusiastic laughter, encouraged members of various tribes from around the world to join and match rhythms, creating new medleys- language no bar, origins no bar, the only requirement being the shared love for life and its essentials.
Popularly called Fr. Abong, this image is his message to us- of peace, of togetherness, of being open to new things, to find good beyond the surface differences, to come together around the community fire to share food, stories and blessings of life, the wealth of peace and to keep the faith in the larger good. Even if it meant not confirming to pedantic beliefs of time.
His physical presence will be missed by every life he touched, but the legacy lives in the lessons he left for us to follow.
“ Fr. Abong was amongst the first person we discussed the idea of involving communities in a food for peace initiative”. said Phrang Roy (Coordinator, TIP; Chairman, NESFAS)
(L) Rev. Anthony Abong B Marak
Died on 12th February 2018
